BATON ROUGE - City leaders got the chance to see a demonstration of an industrial shredder promoting ways to deal with the city's overflowing blight.

Councilman Matt Watson of District 11 brought the company to demonstrate how the shredder works and why it's need in Baton Rouge to help with debris clean-up in addition to blight.

"If you've got a condemned house that gets torn down and that debris needs to be taken to the landfill the taxpayers pay $225 a load to take that. There's more air being transported to the landfill than material," said Watson.

This machine shreds most items like old tires, metal, and even furniture.

Taxpayers already pay hauling costs for most of the garbage the city has to pick up in right-a-ways and on private property after it's been through blight court.

"Every single day maintenance has to send guys out to go pick up stuff and haul it to one place only to have it hauled to another place and then to another place. And then we pay somebody to pick it up there. Just think of all the money we could save taxpayers in the long run," Watson said.

If the city decides to purchase this machine, the cost would be well over $800,000. Watson and Councilwoman Tara Wicker believe the investment is a change in the right direction to fight blight and could pay for itself in the end.